The US Open BWF World Tour is set to begin on Tuesday, and India’s medal hopes will rest on the shoulders of Commonwealth Games bronze medalists Treesa Jolly and Gayatri Gopichand. The world No. 24 pair, who recently finished as runners-up in the Singapore Open Super 750, are seeded second in the women’s doubles draw of the Super 300 tournament. They have received a bye into the round of 16, where they will face the unseeded pair of Hseih Pei Shan and Hung En-Tzu of Chinese Taipei.
The path to the final could lead them to a showdown against the top-seeded Japanese pair of Rin Iwanaga and Kie Nakanishi, who are fresh off their triumph at the Malaysia Masters in May. In the men’s singles, eighth-seeded Priyanshu Rajawat is the top Indian contender, starting his campaign against Jan Louda of Czech Republic. Ayush Shetty and S Sankar Muthuswamy Subramanian are the other Indian participants in the men’s singles, facing Jia Heng Jason Teh of Singapore and a qualifier, respectively.
In the women’s singles, seventh-seeded Malvika Bansod leads the Indian charge, opening her tournament against Kristin Kuuba of Estonia. Tanya Hemanth, an unseeded player, will challenge fifth-seeded Wen Chi Hsu of Chinese Taipei. The men’s doubles competition features the sixth-seeded duo of Krishna Prasad Garaga and Sai Pratheek K, who will face Scott Guildea and Paul Reynolds of Ireland in their first round match. Rohan Kapoor and Ruthvika Shivani Gadde are India’s lone representatives in the mixed doubles, taking on Alexander Dunn and Julie Macpherson in their opening round encounter.
Notably, the Paris Olympics-bound Indian shuttlers, including PV Sindhu, HS Prannoy, Lakshya Sen, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty, and Ashwini Ponnappa/Tanisha Crasto, have chosen to skip the US Open tournament, prioritizing their Olympic preparations with less than a month to go before the Games.
